AT&T, Polycom to advance innovative video capabilities

AT&T and Polycom, Inc have announced a strategic agreement to personalize, mobilize and virtualizes video meetings.

The strategic agreement would allow the two firms to meet the demand of organisations to accelerate the adoption of video-based communications and video-enabled business processes, Polycom announced in a press statement Friday.

The Polycom RealPresence Platform is a comprehensive software infrastructure for universal video, on-premises or in the cloud collaboration, inter-operating with the broadest set of applications, devices and network protocols.

"Together with AT&T, we are reshaping and expanding the capabilities of cloud-delivered video communications, making it easier for businesses to connect and collaborate with each other," said Andy Miller, president and CEO of Polycom.

"With Polycom's commitment to openness, standards and interoperability, and AT&T's commitment to networks, applications and interconnectivity, we're creating video solutions for customers that are as simple, reliable and as universal as dial tone so they can collaborate without worrying about vendor, device or network-specific restrictions. It just works."

Michael Bowling, Chief Marketing Officer, AT&T Business Solutions, said AT&T would lead the innovation curve by introducing solutions and services that make communications easier, anytime, anywhere, on any device.

"The work between AT&T and Polycom will bring customers new capabilities, help expand their reach and use of video collaboration and ultimately deliver lasting impacts by transforming how they get work done," Bowling said.

According to Polycom, the first wave of capabilities includes:

- AT&T and the Polycom RealPresence Platform -AT&T will incorporate the highly interoperable Polycom RealPresence Platform as part of the AT&T Telepresence Solution video infrastructure in the AT&T Business Exchange. This will lead to:

-- Flexible and easy-to-use video collaboration experiences that deliver a lower total cost of ownership.

-- New forms of collaboration with business customers, partners and suppliers on the AT&T Business Exchange.

- Fully Managed Service Bundles -AT&T Telepresence Solution customers will now have access to a range of Polycom RealPresence video solutions offered in 40 countries - including immersive and multipurpose rooms,and personal systems- as part of a managed service bundle. This approachhelps customers reduce their capital expenditures by providing the video equipment as part of the managed service for a monthly fee, while also helping to reduce the burden on internal IT resources, leaving customers more time to focus on business-critical activities.

- VPN Services -Polycom has selected AT&T to become its preferred internal wide area network service provide utilizing the industry-leading MPLS AT&T VPN service.The network will carry Polycom video, voice and data communications including access to the AT&T Business Exchange to and from over 80 locations around the globe including Polycom Customer Experience and Briefing Centres.

"AT&T and Polycom's announcement is a big win for customer choice and interoperability, and it will help accelerate video collaboration as businesses increasingly look to cloud-delivered options," said Zeus Kerravala, Principle Analyst, ZKResearch.

"In addition, this agreement opens new revenue streams and business opportunities for AT&T, and demonstrates the momentum Polycom is having with service providers and in the video cloud market."